Now that Google has a well established set of online services under the title of Google Apps, the search giant has decided to offer them to other companies and organizations.

The initiative is known as Google Apps Partnership Edition (GAPE) and will allow third parties to apply their own branding to Google's applications for their customers to use. This means that an ISP, for example, could use Gmail under its own name, or an organization to brand Google Docs and Spreadsheets, Calendar, and Talk for company use by employees.

No information has been released on whether Google plans to charge for the use of its software under a different name, but the GAPE introduction page does suggest it will by saying, “We designed Google Apps Partner Edition to meet the specific needs of service providers: affordably.”

MATTHEW'S OPINION
I can see a lot of companies taking advantage of this offer from Google, simply because it is much safer to use a proven, well tested set of applications than to create your own. Also, you can guarantee that if Google does charge for the apps, it won't cost anywhere near as much as a Microsoft Office site license. If Google attempted to price it similarly, then it would fail as the feature set is much smaller.

I doubt Google will let go of the apps completely, however. You may be using a branded version of Gmail, but I am sure any ads are provided by Google and the revenue collected by Google. I would expect the company to keep hold of all information gathering and advertising across the board unless the customer pays to not have them.

This is another blow to Microsoft's attempt to keep hold of the office suite market. It now has a competitor offering an online solution that carries your company name and may drastically undercut it on price.